T-Mobile MDA III

Discontinued10th July 2004

There's quite a lot of really interesting
things going on with the Windows-based T-Mobile MDA
III, and they're not all from a technical perspective
either. But since we love our gadgetry, let's see what
T-Mobile have come up with first.

Well.. it's clear from the photograph
that this isn't like anything else currently available
in the European market. This is a big PDA style phone
with slide out QWERTY keyboard which looks like some
sort of mutant version of an O2
XDA II crossed with a Siemens
SL55 with a few other genes thrown in for good measure.
Previous T-Mobile models have been standard Windows-based
units built by HTC (who also make Smartphones for O2
and Orange), but the MDA III appears to have been
developed jointly with Daxian Telecom and China Unicom
who have a CDMA version of the same phone. (Edited:
in fact this is the HTC Blue Angel handset)

There's a PDA-standard 240x320 pixel
display in 65,000 colours, which is touch sensitive
and can be used with a pen. At the time of writing,
we believe that the MDA III has a VGA-resolution digital
camera. We think also in the mix is wireless 802.11b
Ethernet, bringing the MDA III into the same class as
the Nokia
9500 and Motorola
MPx. There's Bluetooth, tri-band GSM, GPRS, 128Mb
RAM expandable on MMC cards, and the usual array of
Microsoft Office compatible applications such as pocket
Excel, Word, Outlook and Internet Explorer. T-Mobile
say that support for Blackberry messaging will be available
later in 2004.

Basically, The T-Mobile MDA III is basically
a top-of-the-range Windows-based PDA which also does
phone calls. Wireless Ethernet and GPRS support mean
that it can work either in the office, at home on a
Wireless LAN or anywhere there's a GPRS signal. This
combination of features makes the MDA III a very powerful
handset, rather like its rivals.

The MDA III measures approximately 125x70x19mm
and weighs around 210 grams. Talktime is around four
hours with about one hours wireless Ethernet use. Standby
time is something in the region of 7-8 days.

So.. that's the technical bag of tricks,
and it's very impressive. What's more impressive is
that T-Mobile have managed to get themselves a killer
handset that should enable them to make inroads into
the power user and business market in those regions
where T-Mobile is still quite small, such as the UK.

Why do we say this? Well, put simply,
the MDA III is the best Windows Smartphone on the market,
and businesses love Windows. Wireless networking and
a keyboard move it into a class above the O2 XDA II
and it's certainly a huge improvement over the Orange
SPV E200 and Orange
SPV C500 in terms of features. Blackberry support
will certainly help this device get a foothold in many
large corporations. We believe that T-Mobile have certainly
got a winner on their hands here, and the MDA III is
certainly one of the best new phones of 2004.

Price is unknown at present, but we
would estimate the unsubsidised price to be about €700-€800.
Availability in from September in Germany, later in
other regions.